THE TWO CONTRACTORS
I want to tell you about two guys.
The First Guy
The first guy has been running his business for nine years. Good reputation. Quality work. The kind of contractor whose customers shake his hand at the end of a job and say, "I'm gonna tell everyone about you."
And sometimes they do.
Here's what his Monday morning looks like:
5:47 AM. The alarm goes off. But he's already awake. Has been since 5:12, staring at the ceiling fan, doing math in his head.
Two jobs booked this week. That's good. Keeps the guys busy. But next week? One small repair. Maybe. And the week after that is wide open. Nothing. Just a blank calendar staring back at him.
He throws off the covers, shuffles to the kitchen, starts the coffee. Checks his phone while it brews. No voicemails. No texts. He opens his email and refreshes it twice, even though he already knows there's nothing there.
He did hire an SEO company once. Nice guys. Professional. They sent him a proposal with a lot of words he didn't understand, but it sounded good. $800 a month. He paid them for fourteen months.
One day, he finally asked them: "Can you show me one job that came from this? Just one. Point to a call that turned into money."
They talked in circles for twenty minutes. Mentioned "attribution" and "brand awareness" and "long-term strategy."
He cancelled the next week. Nothing changed. Which told him everything he needed to know.
The Second Guy
The second guy runs the same type of business. Same service area. Hell, they probably passed each other on the highway last Tuesday and didn't even know it.
Same skills. Same quality of work. Same number of years in the trade.
His Monday morning looks a little different.
5:47 AM. Alarm goes off. He reaches over and hits snooze.
Around 6:30, after his first cup, he picks up his phone. Three missed calls from the weekend. All from the website. All tracked. Each one has a little label showing where it came from. Google Ads. Maps. Organic search.
He doesn't stress about next week. Or the week after that. Because he can see what's coming.
Last month, he raised his prices 15%. Not because his costs went up. Not because he had to. Because he could. Because he had enough work coming in that he could afford to say no to the jobs that weren't worth the headache.
This Friday, he's leaving early. Maybe noon. His kid has a baseball game at 4 and he wants to be there for warmups. Not just show up in the third inning, still smelling like a job site.
Same skills. Same trucks. Same market.
One of them built a system. The other one is still hoping.
This isn't about SEO. It's not about ads or websites or "digital marketing strategy."
It's about which guy you want to be 12 months from now.